THE African Development Bank (AfDB) has disbursed the bulk of the funds under a facility meant to enhance the resilience and response to climate shocks by African countries.
The US$1,78 million facility, the Africa Disaster Risk Financing (ADRiFi), has todate disbursed about US$1,75 million.
In an update, AfDB said the project development objective of the ADRiFi was relevant to the country’s development needs and strategic priorities towards disaster preparedness.
“The project was aligned to priorities 2 and 3 of the CSP [country strategy paper] on building resilient societies and catalysing private sector investments, aligned with the ‘Bank Group’s Strategy for Addressing Fragility and Building Resilience in Africa (2022-2026)’,” AfDB said.
“It is also aligned to the bank’s ‘Climate Change and Green Growth Action Plan 2021-2025’, which prioritises investments that enhance disaster risk management, such as those on data collection and knowledge management, early warning systems and decision making for disaster prevention and response.”
The project aligns with the National Development Strategy 1 (2021-2025) and Zimbabwe’s National Determined Contribution.
According to the bank, until 2000, Zimbabwe suffered mostly from drought but was now experiencing growing impacts of climatic events including floods and tropical cyclones.
Such weather phenomena breed secondary crises including geophysical hazards, destruction of livelihoods, property or infrastructure and outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as typhoid, cholera, bilharzia and malaria, it said.
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“Zimbabwe experiences a survivor drought every 3 years, is experiencing growing impacts and frequency of tropical cyclones with six cyclones affecting the country since 2017,” the bank said.
“The growing climate-related crises in Zimbabwe from one season to another continues to put the rainfall dependent population into food insecurity and deeper poverty.”
It noted that the ADRiFi programme was aimed at mitigating the vulnerabilities:
AfDB said the facility sought to enhance Zimbabwe’s capacity to manage the risks of extreme climate events, such as droughts, floods and tropical cyclones, as well as promoting the adoption of disaster risk financing tools as a viable solution to climate risks.
“This was achieved through comprehensive capacity building for key institutions on climate and disaster risk financing and developing key instruments necessary for implementing climate risk financing, including the Disaster Risk Financing Strategy,” the bank said.
The project supported the government’s priorities in enhancing disaster risk management, improving early warning systems, and developing financial instruments for disaster risk financing.
“The design of the project was relevant for the achievement of intended milestones,” AfDB said.
